With the European Union summit in Salzburg this week viewed in the UK as a failure for Theresa May’s Brexit plan, the UK prime minister felt the need to issue a clarifying statement. In it, May did what she always does in negotiations: She doubled down. It was a statement for two different audiences. Her message to Europe was simple: ...

There’s a new breed of spender in charge of China’s wallets, and it’s not crazy rich Asians. The rise of Pinduoduo Inc. and the decline of JD.com Inc. are good proxies for this shift. Founded three years ago, the e-commerce site Pinduoduo processed 262 billion yuan of transactions in the second quarter, just 40 percent shy of JD’s gross merchandise ...

In the 19th and 20th centuries, a few countries got fabulously rich. These included most of Europe, parts of East Asia, some small oil producing states and parts of the former British Empire. In recent decades, more of the world — large parts of China, portions of India, Southeast Asia and part of Latin America — have joined the rich ...

China’s deep-pocketed internet giants are fighting a turf war in Indonesia, where e-commerce sales could surpass India’s as soon as 2020. The only problem is that there’s almost no path to profitability. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and JD.com Inc. already back four of the top five online-shopping startups in Southeast Asia’s most populous country. In March, Alibaba ...

Are wages determined by market forces, or do businesses get to decide what pay they offer to workers? This question gets at the heart of a lot of the debate about the economy. Why has wage growth been so sluggish for so many years? If you’re on the market-forces side of the wage question, you might answer that productivity growth ...

Bloomberg Aston Martin has confirmed plans to build a hybrid supercar code-named “003.” It’s the third high-performance, mid-engine car the private equity- and Kuwaiti-owned company will have built in recent years, following the $2.6 million Aston Martin Valkyrie and Valkyrie AMR Pro (called “001” and “002,” respectively) that debuted in 2017. The announcement comes as the brand plans to go ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. are set for more competition in the race to roll out self-driving vehicles as parts supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG develops its own offering in the latest sign of how technology shifts are upending traditional roles in the auto industry. ZF plans to invest $14 billion over the next five years on electric and ...

Bloomberg Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to add Android Auto to its vehicles, according to a person familiar with the matter, ending years of resistance to the Google infotainment software due to safety and security concerns. For the first time, Toyota will allow Android Auto devices to connect directly to its cars, after announcing compatibility with Apple Inc.’s CarPlay in January. ...

Bloomberg Car-industry employees concerned that robots will put them out of work needn’t worry — at least for now. Of the 13 publicly traded automakers with at least 100,000 workers at the end of their most-recent fiscal year, 11 had more staff compared with year-end 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Combined, they had 3.1 million employees, or 11 ...

Bloomberg Serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman is determined to make his next carrier stand out in a market where rivals large and small shoehorn budget-minded travellers into cramped cabins. His proposed low-cost airline, with the working name Moxy, plans to offer passengers novel ways to customise their experience: from legroom to food to price. The founder of JetBlue Airways Corp. ...